The present invention generally relates to apparatus and methods for fabricating food items, and particularly to apparatus and methods for fabricating food items including food of a desired shape (which could be supported on a support material) and to the food items which can be produced by such apparatus and methods.
The sale of snack-type food products is a highly competitive business. In addition to the particular food components, increasingly the novelty and play value of the product are important in the marketability of any particular food item. For example, fruit-based snack products such as FRUIT ROLL-UPS™ and FRUIT-BY-THE-FOOT™ fruit products have found wide market acceptance.
Based upon that market acceptance, various techniques have been developed to create fruit-based food items of different shapes and configurations. Examples of such techniques are described in at least U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,935,613; 5,958,485; and 6,190,717. However, it can be appreciated that if food items of different shapes and/or configurations are desired to be produced, it is generally necessary to change dies, embossers, or other forming components of the apparatus which create the shape and/or configuration of the food items, with such changeover resulting in capital costs and downtime labor and lost profits.
Thus, a need continues to exist for apparatus and methods for fabricating food items having novelty and increased play value over prior food items which allow variation in the creation of different food items without encountering changeover problems, which increase productivity from the standpoint of increased rate of production and of minimizing cleaning maintenance and repair necessities, and which otherwise overcome the deficiencies and shortcomings of the prior art.